WASHINGTON — Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler has been a fixture on Newsmax since her confirmation in mid-February, when she became President Donald Trump’s Small Business Administration administrator.
But Loeffler and Newsmax weren’t telling viewers the whole story about her relationship with the conservative cable TV news network.
Loeffler, who served as a U.S. senator from Georgia between 2020 to 2021, owns 136,555 shares worth of stock in the parent company of Newsmax, according to federal financial disclosures reviewed by Fortune.
She’s one of several top Trump appointees—including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, and U.S. Agency for Global Media senior advisor Kari Lake—whom Fortune identified as having potential financial conflicts of interest between their personal finances and their public service.
Loeffler appeared on Newsmax at least five times in a two-month span, between March and May of this year—but at no time in these interviews did she or Newsmax discuss or disclose a matter effectively unknown to the public: Loeffler has a large personal investment in the network.
Loeffler affirmed in an April 1 filing with the Office of Government Ethics that she and her husband owned a “preferred stock convertible note” in Newsmax, which they exchanged on March 29 for “restricted class B common stock.”
Loeffler did not name her Newsmax investment among planned divestitures as listed in a signed government ethics agreement from January 24. Nor did she divest it, as she did other investments, per a March 24 certificate of divestiture. Since then, she has not disclosed selling off any other personal investments, including her Newsmax stock.
Newsmax stock has generally traded between $22 and $26 per share during May, before sliding below $20 throughout June.
On March 3, Loeffler appeared on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight show to trash Biden-era business policies.
On March 12, Loeffler told Newsmax’s America Agenda show that “people love seeing ‘Made in America’ back on all of our critical, essential goods, and I’m just thrilled to continue to push this across the country for President Trump’s America First agenda.”
On March 25, Loeffler again joinedRob Schmitt Tonight to promote the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency. “Thank God for Elon Musk and his DOGE effort. I mean, this is a patriot who is working hard for the American taxpayer,” Loeffler declared on the show.
On April 30, Loeffler told Newsmax host Greta Van Susteren there’s “no bigger fan of small business than Donald Trump.”
On May 6, Loeffler appeared on Newsmax’s Carl Higbie Frontline show to tout the Trump administration’s commitment to domestic manufacturing.
In a statement to Fortune, Small Business Administration spokesperson Caitlin O’Dea said: “Administrator Loeffler maintains full compliance with the ethics agreement executed prior to her confirmation and fully complies with every request from the SBA Office of Ethics and the U.S. Office of Government Ethics—who reviewed all of her financial holdings, including Newsmax, prior to finalizing the ethics agreement. She will proudly continue to exercise her First Amendment right as the Cabinet-level voice for America’s 34 million small businesses, while upholding all ethics rules and requirements.”
Newsmax did not respond to inquiries.
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics advises news organizations to “avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived” and “disclose unavoidable conflicts.”
“You have a responsibility to both be ethical and to appear to be ethical,” said Peter Loge, director of the Project on Ethics in Political Communication at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. “Newsmax, Loeffler—they should just disclose it. There should be a note somewhere” during the interviews.
As a senator, Loeffler was investigated and subsequently cleared of wrongdoing by the Senate Ethics Committee after she sold large amounts of stock in 2020 following her attendance at a closed-doors Senate briefing on the then-emerging COVID-19 pandemic.
At the time, a Loeffler spokesperson said the then senator, who would go on to lose her office in early 2021, “did absolutely nothing wrong and has been completely exonerated.”
Trump officials investing in defense contractors, Trump Media
Loeffler is not alone among notable Trump administration officials in maintaining financial investments that could pose conflicts of interest with their official duties, according to a Fortune review of government documents.
Secretary Pete Hegseth’s wife Jennifer has cut an outsize profile during her husband’s turbulent Pentagon tenure—reportedly participating in a high-level government Signal chat, accompanying Hegseth to meetings with senators, and directing agency social media decisions despite holding no official role.
But following her husband’s January 24 nomination, Jennifer Hegseth maintained personal stock investments in more than a dozen companies with current or recent federal contracts with the Department of Defense. While she may have only held onto the stocks for a period of two weeks to two months after her husband’s confirmation, the contracts held by companies in which Jennifer Hegseth invested are collectively worth billions of dollars, a Fortune review of government documents indicates.
In an ethics agreement he signed in January, Pete Hegseth did not list Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stocks among personal assets the couple agreed to divest in order to avoid conflicts of interest.
But on Monday, the federal Office of Government Ethics released a document revealing that Jennifer Hegseth had divested from all of her defense-contractor holdings between early February and late March, just before Trump declared a spate of “Liberation Day” tariffs that ultimately tanked the stock market. The sales were first reported by NOTUS.
The Hegseths first disclosed the existence of the defense-contractor investments to the White House in January and December. The Office of Government Ethics did not officially certify the sales were “in compliance with applicable laws and regulations” until June 6. Fortune first inquired about the status of the Hegseths’ personal finances in March and made repeated inquiries in recent weeks.
Had Jennifer Hegseth continued holding her defense-contractor investments, they would have posed a significant conflict of interest for Pete Hegseth, particularly given her apparent hands-on involvement with Pentagon matters, ethics watchdogs told Fortune.
Jennifer Hegseth’s now-jettisoned stock holdings included shares of core military weapon and defense systems companies, including Northrop Grumman Corp., Lockheed Martin Corp. and Honeywell International, according to a federal disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics.
They also include shares of several computing, technology and telecommunications companies, such as Advanced Micro Devices, Amazon Web Services, IBM, T-Mobile, Google parent Alphabet, and Thermo Fisher Scientific.
Taken together, Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stock investments were worth between $71,015 and $365,000 as of January, documents filed with the federal Office of Government Ethics indicate. (Appointees are required by law to disclose their family assets only in broad ranges.)
The sales come at a time when Trump himself has personally set a laissez-faire standard for financial conflicts, with neither himself nor his appointees in acute fear of scrutiny from federal authorities or ethics regulators. Several other high-profile Trump appointees actively hold personal investments that could pose conflicts of interest with their public service.
The disclosure of Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stocks also represents a reversal of what the Hegseths had previously indicated about their investments.
A three-page ethics agreement signed in January by Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News television host nominated by Trump to lead the DoD, stated he will not “participate personally and substantially in any particular matter in which I know that I have a financial interest” unless he first obtains a written waiver or exemption. This expressly includes financial interests “imputed” to him, including “any spouse or minor child of mine,” according to the agreement.
“It is my responsibility to understand and comply with commitments outlined in this agreement,” Pete Hegseth stated.
But Hegseth’s ethics agreement did not indicate his wife, Jennifer, would sell or otherwise alter the status of her defense-contractor stocks.
Following Pete Hegseth’s narrow confirmation on January 24, the newly minted defense secretary offered further indication that Jennifer Hegseth would retain her defense contractor stocks, checking “N/A” for “not applicable” on an ethics agreement compliance certification document asking whether he had “completed all of the divestitures indicated in my ethics agreement within the time period specified.”
It’s unclear whether Jennifer Hegseth’s defense-contractor stock holdings put Pete Hegseth in conflict with existing federal-ethics law, which provides a “de minimis exemption” for “disqualifying” spousal stock holdings that together do not exceed $50,000.
A 2023 advisory from the Department of Defense’s Standards of Conduct Office acknowledges this exemption while advising all agency personnel “must continuously monitor for and prevent conflicts of interest between their official duties and their personal financial interests.”
Jennifer Hegseth could not be reached for comment. Prior to confirmation Monday of Jennifer Hegseth’s stock sales, two Pentagon spokespeople declined to answer a series of specific questions posed by Fortune about Pete Hegseth’s ethics agreement, Jennifer Hegseth’s stock investments, and the couple’s future financial plans. They likewise declined to answer questions about Jennifer Hegseth’s role advising her husband in his work as defense secretary.
“Secretary Hegseth’s wife is an incredibly accomplished woman and leader. She is an asset to her husband and an advocate for military families,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Fortune in a written statement.
“The secretary fully complies with all financial disclosure requirements and ethics regulations,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell also said in a statement.
In response to questions Monday about Jennifer Hegseth’s stock sales, the Pentagon’s press office wrote: “Beyond the previous statements provided, we have nothing additional to share.”
Legal or not, the Hegseths’ ownership of defense-contractor stocks would have been ethically problematic, said Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonpartisan watchdog organization Project on Government Oversight.
He added: “There’s a simple way to handle this: Sell these interests and remove any questioning of the government service you’re providing.”
The Hegseths’ personal finances were briefly raised at Pete Hegseth’s January confirmation hearing, an animated proceeding dominated by accusations—and rebuttals—of Hegseth’s alleged marital infidelity, domestic violence, excessive drinking, and nonprofit-business mismanagement. Hegseth has denied wrongdoing.
But none of these concerns, mostly articulated by Democrats, were enough to derail Hegseth’s nomination, which was approved when Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote in favor of Hegseth. And Hegseth’s financial interests—he earned a salary of $4,602,340 from Fox News prior to his appointment, according to a financial disclosure—have received little scrutiny since.
For Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who grilled Hegseth at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, there was only one financial choice for him to make.
“It’s an egregious and unethical conflict of interest for Defense Secretary Hegseth’s wife to own defense industry stocks while participating in Pentagon meetings and Signal war chats. The Hegseth family must divest,” Warren said in an email to Fortune immediately prior to confirmation of Jennifer Hegseth’s stock sale. “No one should have to wonder whether military decisions are made based on the national interest or boosting their own stock portfolio.”
Comparing defense secretaries
The Hegseths’ personal finances illustrate differences in how Trump and President Joe Biden grappled with ethical standards affecting their key administration appointees.
On Biden’s first day in office on Jan. 20, 2021, he signed an executive order that in part required appointees to “commit to decision-making on the merits and exclusively in the public interest, without regard to private gain or personal benefit.” Biden’s “ethics pledge” went beyond existing federal law in order to “restore and maintain public trust in government.”
Among the Biden officials affected was Lloyd Austin, who served as defense secretary for the duration of Biden’s four-year term. Austin acknowledged owning six to seven figures’ worth of stock in defense contractor [hotlink]Raytheon Technologies[/hotlink], now known as RTX. Austin served on Raytheon’s corporate board until January 2021, resigning upon being nominated by Biden.
In his January 2021 ethics agreement with the federal government, Austin—unlike Hegseth—agreed to divest from Raytheon stock to “avoid any actual or apparent conflict of interest.”
By early March 2021, Austin had sold his Raytheon stock shares, valued at between $501,002 and $1,015,000, according to a transaction document filed with the Office of Government Ethics. A later filing indicated Austin received a cash payout of $739,726 related to the sale of his Raytheon stock.
But Biden’s administration wasn’t trouble-free. For one thing, the Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General found that Biden-era EPA Assistant Administrator Joseph Goffman “failed to meet his ethical obligations under the federal financial conflicts-of-interest prohibition”—an allegation he denied.
And while presidents, including Trump, are required by law to file an annual disclosure detailing aspects of their personal finances, such as assets and liabilities, Trump is unlike any previous president for obliterating lines between his presidential public service and personal business interests.
Trump has issued no Biden-esque “ethics pledge” executive order during his second term.
Kari Lake, U.S. Agency for Global Media senior advisor
Trump empowered Lake—a former journalist and failed U.S. Senate and Arizona gubernatorial candidate—to gut the government’s international broadcasting agency, which includes the flagship Voice of America.
She also disclosed investments in about two dozen different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Etherium, Stellar, Hedera, and Dogecoin.
Lake has not signed an ethics agreement with the government, nor otherwise indicated she has sold or plans to sell these financial interests.
Occasionally, the White House will grant limited-scope ethics waivers to government officials for financial reasons. It gave Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. one for four family investment funds among his many assets. It also gave one to Energy Secretary Chris Wright for energy-related investments he hadn’t yet sold before speaking in March at global energy conference CERAWeek.
“We can confirm that no additional documents exist at this time,” the U.S. Agency for Global Media’s Ethics Office wrote in an email to Fortune on May 30.
Lake’s crypto and Trump Media holdings underscore an inconsistent approach among Trump officials to avoid real or perceived financial conflicts.
She likewise agreed to sell her shares of stock in Tesla and conservative media platform Rumble Inc., each of which she valued at between $100,001 and $250,000. But like Lake, Hegseth, the defense secretary, made no such ethics pledge to sell his own investment in Bitcoin, which he valued in January at between $15,001 and $50,000.
And unlike Lake, one top Trump official sold off a Trump-related investment in the name of avoiding conflicts.
“I will divest my interests in Trump Media & Technology Group, as soon as practicable but not later than 90 days after my confirmation,” now–Attorney General Pam Bondi affirmed in an ethics agreement dated January 14.
But Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s investment in Trump Media & Technology Group—she is a former member of the company’s board of directors—is less straightforward.
McMahon states in a February 5 ethics agreement that she is entitled “unvested” restricted stock units that “will vest in nine substantially equal installments beginning March 25, 2025, through March 25, 2027.”
McMahon also states she “will divest the resulting stock from my vested RSUs as soon as practicable but not later than 90 days after my confirmation.”
Dave Levinthal is a Washington, D.C.–based investigative journalist. Dave previously worked as editor-in-chief of Raw Story, deputy editor at Business Insider, and as an editor or reporter at the Center for Public Integrity, Politico, OpenSecrets, and the Dallas Morning News. He has also written for The Atlantic, TIME, Rolling Stone, the Daily Beast, NOTUS, and The Ankler.
